Method at loading and unloading of goods in aircraft

ABSTRACT

A security method for secure loading and unloading of goods to and from an aircraft. Items including freight and catering trolleys, following examination, have a transponder in which the identity and the destination of the goods are stored. A communicator at entrances of the aircraft reads information from the transponder on the items that are introduced into the aircraft. Persons that handle items on the way to and at the aircraft have a transponder that includes the person&#39;s identity. A communicator on the relevant goods transporter for the items transported to the aircraft, and a communicator in or at the aircraft read information from the person&#39;s transponder. Information read from each transponder is stored in a central database, and is compared in a computer connected to the database with previously stored information. In the case of a discrepancy in the information an alarm is given.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention concerns a method for loading and unloadingaircraft.

The method is aimed at increasing security, creating traceability, andmaking possible the verification of and obtaining documentationconcerning the loading and unloading of aircraft.

2. Description of the Related Art

There has been a great need for increasing the security at airports eversince the terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center on 11 Sep.2001. Many initiatives have been taken using different means in order toincrease protection against attacks and against terrorist deeds. Thesehave principally been directed at preventing attacks against aircraft inthe air. This has meant that passengers have been checked morerigorously, that luggage has been examined using X-rays, and thatpersonnel at airports have been checked during passage to and from theoutward-bound regions of the airport. Attempts have been made to couplepassengers and their luggage to particular departures, and in the eventof a passenger choosing not to board an aircraft, this leads to theluggage of this passenger being unloaded.

Airports have been equipped during recent years with check-in machines,and the use of boarding-card machines during embarkation is very wellestablished. This has also been supplemented with what are known as“e-tickets,” where the air ticket is registered against a selectedcredit card and information is stored in central databases to bepresented once a passenger uses the credit card.

Various concepts have been presented as a new aspect in order to makeuse of biometric identification in order to verify that it is thecorrect person who has the right to board a certain aircraft. This maybe with the aid of fingerprint recognition, retina scanning, or facialrecognition. The aim is to exploit unique individual properties in orderto avoid the risk that cards may be forged, exchanged, or copied.

The examinations that have been relatively extensive for a long periodhave been investigation of carry-on luggage. The contents have beenexamined using X-ray equipment and, where necessary, bags have beenopened for a more detailed examination.

It has become clear that checked-in luggage contained a time-bomb, inthe Lockerbee accident in Scotland, in which a Pan Am aircraft crashedfollowing an explosion in the air.

The examination and registration of luggage that is currently carriedout mainly satisfies two needs: not only does it make possible thetransport of luggage to the correct destination, it also makes itpossible to investigate that luggage does not contain any dangerousobjects at all.

The major part of air-freighted goods is transported in aircraftcontainers, so called “ULDs” (Universal Load Devices) or ontransportable pallets known as “flatbeds.” This is in order to makeloading and unloading of the aircraft as rapid and as simple aspossible, and in order to make possible maximal use of the existingspace. There is a need for tracing the goods, and for this reasonload-carriers have identification in the form of a paper code that isaffixed before each journey. The containers themselves are not currentlysubjected to any real security examination, it is the freight companyitself that prepares these before a journey.

For most flights, food and other catering equipment constitutes a notinsignificant part of what is planned and loaded before the flight.These originate in a catering kitchen, which is normally located insidethe airport area, but not on the outward-bound side of the airport. Thetransport from the kitchen to the aircraft thus passes through gates.Food trolleys are rolled onboard by means of what are known as“highloaders,” and they are left to fly with the aircraft. Differentsystems have been tried at the kitchen for controlling the transportersthat are to provide the aircraft with food, and to ensure that it isdelivered in time. A visual examination of the loading is currentlycarried out by one responsible person on board, who checks the trolleysagainst a list that exists concerning number of passengers, etc.

The same is true for trolleys with tax-free articles.

There are many inadequacies, in spite of all the examinations. One suchinadequacy is that handling luggage that has already been checked in,and other goods that are to be loaded onto the aircraft, may be carriedout in a faulty manner such that goods that are not to be carried areerroneously loaded onto the aircraft.

All of these measures have also meant that the time required to carryout the necessary examinations has increased, and that the costs for theair industry have risen. There is a need for the future to discoversolutions that provide increased protection, while at the same timegiving efficient handling of passenger traffic.

The discussion concerning issues with respect to air security has shownthat increased protection is desirable with respect to all forms ofloading and unloading aircraft.

The present invention offers a method that significantly increasessecurity.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is based on increasing the security with respectto goods of various types that are loaded into an aircraft beforetake-off.

The present invention thus relates to a method for loading and unloadinggoods to and from an aircraft. Goods, including freight and/or so-calledcatering trolleys, are equipped following examination with a transponderin which the identity and, possibly, the destination of the goods isstored. A communicator at the entrances of the aircraft for freight andfor catering trolleys reads the transponder on the goods that areintroduced into the aircraft. The personnel that handle the goods on theway to and at the aircraft are provided with a transponder including theidentity of the person in question. A communicator in the relevanttransport means for the goods to the aircraft and a communicator in orat the aircraft read the transponder on the personnel in question. Theinformation read from each transponder is stored in a central database,and the information is compared by a computer connected to the centraldatabase. In the case of a discrepancy in the information an alarm isgiven.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

The invention is described in more detail below, partially in connectionwith the attached drawing in which:

FIG. 1 shows schematically a communication system including atransponder and a communicator; and

FIG. 2 is a block diagram that shows an example of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention concerns loading and unloading of goods into andfrom an aircraft, and, in particular, loading of goods in preparationfor a flight.

With respect to passengers and their luggage, it is highly advantageousto use the method that is described in the Swedish patent applicationnumber 0300437-1.

According to the present invention, goods, including at least freightand/or catering trolleys, are equipped following examination with atransponder in which the identity of the goods is stored. “Cateringtrolleys” is here taken to denote conventional trolleys for food,drinks, tax-free items, and equivalent goods.

A first transponder is programmed and attached to or placed intoexamined freight. A second transponder is programmed and attached to orplaced into each catering trolley. “Programmed” here means the storageof the information in a memory in each transponder by means of acommunicator.

Known automatic identification systems that use radio frequencies, knownas “RFID” (Radio Frequency Identification) systems, containidentification tags (ID-tags) and communicators. One known type ofidentification tag includes an antenna, a modulator, and a circuit forcontrol logic in order to control the modulator. Such a known ID-tag isdesigned such that it is arranged to receive a signal transmitted from acommunicator and to reflect this signal in modulated form.

The ID-tag is applied to the object or person that is to be identified.The identity can be read by a communicator at a certain short distance,for example, five meters. It is also possible, depending on the design,to read and write other information into the ID-tag with the aid of thecommunicator, in addition to an identity.

The relatively short range, five meters for example, makes it possibleto communicate with the ID-tags within a geographically limited regionof communication.

Such an RFID system is used according to one preferred embodiment of thepresent invention. However, another, equivalent system, such as aBluetooth system, can be used instead in which transponders andcommunicators communicate using the technology known as Bluetooth.

According to the invention, a first communicator at the entrances of theaircraft for freight and a second communicator at the entrances of theaircraft for catering trolleys read the transponders on the goods thatare loaded into the aircraft.

The personnel that handle the goods on their way to and at the aircraftare also equipped with a transponder including the identity of theperson in question.

A communicator in the relevant means of transport for goods to theaircraft and a communicator in or at the aircraft read the transponderof the personnel in question.

Furthermore, the information read from each transponder is, according tothe invention, stored in a central database.

The information is compared by a computer connected to the centraldatabase. In the case of a discrepancy in the information, an alarm isgiven.

Thus, by the disclosed procedures, information will be available atleast with respect to which goods and which catering trolleys have beenloaded, by which members of the personnel staff, and which vehicles havebeen used.

It is in this way possible to create an expectation that the correctgoods and catering trolleys have been loaded in the correct manner.However, this depends on the central database retrieving informationfrom other databases in the various computer systems of the airport,databases with respect to preparation of freight, catering trolleys, andtax-free trolleys, together with which personnel are on duty, whichvehicles are being used, which aircraft are to be loaded, etc. Thatinformation is available in the various computer systems.

A communication unit for the identification of objects or persons isshown schematically in FIG. 1. The communication unit includes atransponder 1 and a communicator in the form of a receiver/transmitterunit 2. The communicator 2 is arranged to transmit a query signal 3 tothe transponder 1. The transponder is arranged to receive the querysignal and thereby reflect and modulate the query signal. Thecommunicator 2 is arranged to receive the reflected signal 4 and todecode its information content. The communicator 2 is connected to asupervisory computer system 5 in a suitable way, such as cable, radio,W-Lan, GSM/GPRS/G3, or similar.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram in order to illustrate the operation of thepresent invention.

Reference numeral 7 in FIG. 2 identifies the central database, andreference numeral 16 the computer.

A first transponder 6 is attached to or placed into freight that isprepared and that has been approved. It is appropriate that thetransponder contains information concerning an ID number for thefreight, the destination of the freight, and the aircraft with which thefreight is to be transported. The transponder is programmed withinformation by means of a communicator 13, which may be fixed orportable.

Catering trolleys and tax-free trolleys are equipped in a similar mannerwith a second transponder 8 that contains information that the trolleyhas been approved and onto which aircraft the trolley is to be loaded.The transponder is programmed by means of a communicator 17 located atthe packing location of the trolley. Alternatively, the communicator 17may be portable.

The transponders may, alternatively, contain solely an ID number, and itmay not be possible to program them with an ID number. In this case,information about approval, destination, contents, etc., can beretrieved from a central database at the airport. In this case, the IDnumber of the transponder is fed into the last mentioned centraldatabase together with other information. When the transponder issubsequently read by a communicator, the read ID number can thus bepaired with the stored information desired.

Each vehicle is equipped with a communicator 20 that reads the identityof the personnel.

Since catering kitchens and equivalent premises often lie outside of theoutwardly bound region of an airport, fixed communicators 12 can beinstalled at gates and routes that the vehicle passes in order to obtainaccess to the outwardly bound regions.

During loading of the aircraft, the aircraft can be identified by theaircraft having been equipped with a transponder 11 that is read bycommunicators 18, 19 at the loading entrances of the aircraft, wherebythis information is transferred to the central database 7. Furthermore,the communicators 18, 19, which may include several differentcommunicators, are arranged to read the transponders 6, 8 on all goodsand all trolleys that are loaded.

Thus, it is preferred that, in the case in which the communicators 18,19 at the entrances of the aircraft are independent of the aircraft, theaircraft is equipped with a transponder 11 that specifies the identityof the aircraft, which is caused to be read by one of the communicators18, 19, or by another communicator.

The communicators 18, 19 may also read the relevant transponder 10 ofthe vehicles.

All information read by the communicators is transferred to the centraldatabase 7.

The arrows in FIG. 2 pointing into the central database illustrate thatthe information in all transponders and all communicators is transferredto the central database 7.

As has been described above, the information is compared by a computer16 connected to the central database 7. In the case in which adiscrepancy is present in the information, an alarm is given by asuitable alarm means 14, 15.

One discrepancy may be that goods have been loaded incorrectly, that acatering trolley has been loaded incorrectly, that the wrong personnelhave carried out the loading, that the wrong vehicle has been used,etc., relative to the information that has been received concerningfreight, catering, personnel, and vehicles from the various computersystems.

According to one preferred embodiment, the alarm is given at at leastone location, and the discrepancy is displayed at this location on adisplay such that security personnel can make a decision concerning whatmeasures are to be taken.

According to one highly preferred design, an alarm is given at at leasttwo different locations located at a large distance from each other, inorder to make manipulation of the alarm means more difficult.

It is in this case preferred that the alarm means is located in thecontrol tower of the airport. This ensures that an aircraft does notreceive permission to take-off if the system has discovered adiscrepancy in the information of the type described above.

This system, finally, will offer reports in order to be able to followand to document the events that have taken place. This means that theevents, at least to a certain extent, can be reconstructed in the casefor which a passenger has attempted to circumvent currently validroutines.

By identifying and verifying sensed information against a centraldatabase having relevant information, or with interacting andcoordinated central databases, a secure, real-time-adapted check isobtained. Advantages include increased security, increased efficiency,and automatic documentation of all events. A system is in this waycreated that has high performance and high flexibility at a reasonablecost, since many of the components that are needed are already availablein use.

A number of embodiments have been described above. It is, however, clearthat the routines described can be changed without deviating from theinvention.

The present invention is, for this reason, not to be considered aslimited to the embodiments described above, since variations can be madewithin the scope of the accompanying claims.

1. A method for loading and unloading goods from an aircraft, whichrespective goods are provided with a transponder in which at least oneof the identity and the destination of the goods is stored, and where acommunicator reads information from the transponder on the goods thatare introduced into the aircraft, said method comprising the steps of:equipping goods including at least one of freight and catering trolleyswith a transponder after examination of the goods: providing acommunicator at entrances to the aircraft for freight and for cateringtrolleys for reading information transmitted by a transponder providingto a person that handles the goods on the way to and at the aircraft apersonnel transponder including the identity of the person readinginformation transmitted by a personnel transponder by a communicator atransport means for transporting the goods to the aircraft and by acommunicator in or at the aircraft: transmitting from a communicator andstoring in a central database information read from each transpondercomparing in a computer connected to the central database theinformation read by the communicators from each transponder withinformation previously stored in the central database; and providing analarm signal in the case of a discrepancy in the compared information.2. A method according to claim 1, including the steps of: providing analarm signal at at least one location, and displaying any discrepancy ona display in order for security personnel to determine what measuresshould be taken.
 3. A method according to claim 2, wherein the alarmsignal is given at at least two different locations.
 4. A methodaccording to claim 1, wherein the transponders are RFID-transponders. 5.A method according to claim 1, including the step of providing in atransponder on the goods at a location at which the goods are preparedinformation confirming that the goods have been examined and approvedfor loading into the aircraft.
 6. A method according to claim 1,including the step of providing in a transponder on the trolleys at alocation at which the trolleys are prepared and packed informationconfirming that the trolleys have been examined and approved for loadinginto the aircraft.
 7. A method according to claim 1, wherein whencommunicators at entrances to the aircraft are independent of theaircraft, step of equipping the aircraft with a transponder that is readby at least one of the communicators after which information that isread is transferred to the central database.